becurl

t. [Eng. pref. be, and curl.] Το curl; to cover or adorn with curls. "Is the beau compelled against his will to practise winning airs before the gla , or employ for whole hours all the thought with inside his noddle to bepowder and becurl the outside?"-Search: Freewill, Foreknowledge, and Fate , p. 98. běd (1), * bědde (1), s . [A.S. bed , bæd , bedd = a bed, couch, pallet, tick of a bed, bed in a garden; O.S., Icel., Dan., & O. Fries. bed ; Dut. bed, and in compos. bedde; Ger. bett ; M. H. Ger. bette; O. H. Ger. betti , petti = a bed.] A. As substantive: I. Ordinary Language: 1. Lit .: An article of domestic furniture to sleep upon. Originally a bed was the skin of a beast stretched upon the floor; then rushes, heath, and after a time straw were substituted. A modern bed consists of a large mattre stuffed with feathers, hair, or other materials, with bolster, pillow, sheets, blankets, ., the whole raised from the ground on a bedstead. The term bed sometimes excludes and sometimes includes the bedstead. In India, and other Eastern countries, the bed of a native, at least on his travels, is simply a mat, a rug, or a bit of old carpet; his bed-clothes are his scarf or plaid. "Bed" and bed-clothes he has no difficulty in carrying with him as he goes. "I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed , and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed , and went forth before them all.."- Mark ii. 11, 12. To make a bed : To put a bed in order after it has been used. . I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, scour, dre meat and drink, mak make the beds, and bake, sco do all myself."-Shakesp.: Merry Wives, 1. 4. 2. Half figuratively: (a) A sleeping-place, a lodging. "On my knees I beg That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food." Shakesp.: Lear, ii. 4. (b) Marriage, or its lawful use. "George, the eldest son of this second bed , was, after the death of his father, by the singular care and affection of his mother, well brought up."-Clarendon. (c) Child-birth. To be brought to bed: To be delivered of a child. It is often used with the particle of ; as "she was brought to bed of a daughter." "Ten months after Florimel happen'd to wed, And was brought in a laudable manner to bed ." Prior. To put to bed: Either to do so in a general sense, or, spec., to aid in child-birth, to deliver of a child. 3. Quite figuratively: (a) The grave in which the body reposes in death. (Used specially of the calm sleep of death, appropriate to the righteous as distinguished from the wicked.) ". this bed of death."-Shakesp. Rom. & Jul., v. 3. "We thought as we hollowed his narrow bed, And smoothed down his lonely pillow, That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow." Wolfe: Burial of Sir John Moore. (b) In a more general sense: That in which anything lies. "See hoary Albula's infected tide O'er the warm bed of smoaking sulphur glide." Add is on. (c) A bank of earth raised slightly above the ordinary level in a garden, and planted with flowers or whatever other vegetable productions it was designed to receive. "Herbs will be tenderer and fairer, if you take them out of beds when they are newly come up, and remove them into pots with better earth."- Bacon . (d) The channel of a river. "The great magazine for all kinds of treasure is supposed to be the bed of the Tiber."-Add is on. IMG:content-1178.png:[blocks in formation] 485 meals. Three such "beds" were generally placed around three sides of a table, the attendants having acce to the fourth. [TRI CLINIUM.] 3. French History . Bed of justice: (a) Lit. The throne on which, before the revolution of 1789, the king used to sit when he went to Parliament to look after the affairs of State, the officers of Parliament attending him in scarlet robes. (b) Fig . As this interference of the king with the Parliament was not compatible with free government, sitting on the bed of justice came to signify the exertion of arbitrary power. 4. Mach. The foundation-piece or portion of anything on which the body of it rests, as the bed-piece of a steam-engine; the lower stone of a grinding mill; or the box, body, or receptacle of a vehicle. 5. Gunnery: (a) Bed of a mortar: A solid piece of oak, hollowed in the middle to receive the breech and half the trunnions. (b) Bed of a great gun: The thick plank which lies immediately under the piece, and constitutes the body of the carriage. (c) In a rifle: The hollow stock designed for the reception of the barrel. 6. Printing: The level surface of a printing pre on which the forme of type is laid. In the old wooden pre es, now superseded bý iron, the bed was usually of stone. 7. Ship or other Carpentry: (a) The cradle of a ship on the stocks. (b) The thickest part of a bowsprit. (c) The surface in a plane-stock on which the plane-iron is supported. ( Knight .) 8. Masonry : (a) The direction in which the several layers of stone lie in a quarry; also a course of stones or bricks in a wall. In the case of bricks or tiles in position the side specially called the bed is the lower one. (b) The top and bottom surface of stones when worked for building. (c) A place on which a brick or tile is laid, or a place prepared for the rearing upon it of a wall. 9. Geol. A stratum, a layer of rock. "Among the English Pliocene beds the next in antiquity Red Elements of Geol . (1871), p. 170. 10. Billiards : The flat surface of a billiard table, covered with green cloth. Formerly it was of wood; now nearly all billiard tables have slate beds. 11. Nautical: The impre ion or "form" made by a ship's bottom on mud after being left by an ebb-tide. (Smyth: Sailor's Word Book .) B. Attributively in the sense of, pertaining to, or connected with a bed, as in the following compounds: * bed-ale, 8. An entertainment at a country wedding among poor people; christening ale.